In Peril: All People, All Life, Our Earth, In Prospect: Better Healthcare and Medicine: Exploring Massage, Cancer, Qigong, & Climate Change
All of us live between peril and safety, danger and security, sickness and wellness, death and life. The threats range from a head cold to the Climate Change that endangers all life on earth. How may we consider such topics and create strategies and positive outlooks?
The first half of this book presents stories of wellness and illness. Carter becomes a licensed massage therapist and is certified as a Qigong healer (an ancient Chinese healing art). Concurrently, he experiences cancer and aftermath of treatment. Further trained in hospital massage, he provides massage and Qigong for cancer patients and their families.
The second half of the book discusses the Climate Change that threatens to disrupt the health of all humans and all life on planet Earth. Concepts in modern biology, physics, ecology, and religion suggest changes we can make locally and globally.
As wonderful as modern medicine is, it is still largely materials-based. It could be extended, improved, and be more effective if it further drew on the resources of mind and energy in both caregivers and patients, indeed in all persons sick or well. Developments in Integrative Medicine, Medical Humanities, and Health Humanities all help to widen the medical gaze.
Whatever the future may bring, Carter affirms, we can feel gratitude for today, celebrate our bodies, energies, and minds, and seek—personally and socially—to support the health of all humans, all living creatures, and all of the earth.